A well (e.g., a vertical well, near-vertical well, deviated well, horizontal well, or multi-lateral well) can pass through various hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs or may extend through a single reservoir for a long distance. A technique to increase the production of the well is to perforate the well in a number of different zones, either in the same hydrocarbon bearing reservoir or in different hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs.
An issue associated with producing from a well in multiple zones relates to the control of the inflow of fluids into the well. In a well producing from a number of separate zones, in which one zone has a higher pressure than another zone, the higher pressure zone may produce into the lower pressure zone rather than to the earth surface. Similarly, in a horizontal well that extends through a single reservoir, zones near the “heel” of the well (the zones nearer the earth surface) may begin to produce unwanted water or gas (an effect referred to as water or gas coning) before those zones near the “toe” of the well (zones further away from the earth surface). Production of unwanted water or gas in any one of these zones may require special interventions to be performed to stop production of the water or gas.
To address water coning or gas coning effects, inflow control devices are used to control pressure drop and flow rates in the various zones of the well. However, the overall design of a completion system that includes such inflow control devices can be complex and can be affected by various characteristics and parameters. Conventional techniques of designing a completion system having inflow control devices suffer from various drawbacks.